We are as surprised as your readers to hear that your newspaper believes the EU wishes to merge Britain and France. The suggestion that the “EU wants to merge UK with France”, 2nd May, is absurd, and of course, untrue.

There is no proposal to create a new cross-channel region. What exist (and have done for 10 years) are a number of cross-border programmes aimed at things like boosting jobs and looking after the environment.

Yours faithfully

Johannes Hahn,
Commissioner for Regional Policy

A similar clarification was also sent to the Daily Star for their article “EU makes us French” which was also published on 2 May 2011.

Letter to the Daily Express in response to claims that the EU wants to merge UK with France, 2nd May 2011, 4.3 out of 5 based on 6 ratings